China News Service, Shanghai, October 1 (Reporter Xu Jing) On September 30, the "Ingenuity and Computational Power" supporting event of the 2026 World Design Capital Conference was held in Shanghai. Experts from academia and industry in China and Australia gathered together to discuss the transformation path of design education under the wave of AI around the inheritance of ingenuity and the empowerment of artificial intelligence (AI), and to explore a new paradigm of design education that combines humanistic background and digital capabilities.
活动现场，“艺术设计+城市生态+非遗传承+航天科技+人工智能”产学研合作平台揭牌成立。 The "Salute to the 70th Anniversary of China's Aerospace Industry" theme exhibition area, which was unveiled at the same time, is based on Shanghai Aerospace's previous launch missions. It displays a series of mission badges and a variety of aerospace cultural and creative products, using design language to tell the story of aerospace.
主旨演讲环节，四位中澳专家分别从美育空间、设计伦理、城市量化研究、人机艺术共创等角度分享观点。
Wang Haisong, deputy dean of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University, introduced that the new campus of Shanghai University of Fine Arts was transformed from Baowu Industrial Heritage, with a construction area of 220,000 square meters. It relies on an 860-meter-long industrial building to create an open circulation space similar to a "terminal building + supermarket", abandoning fixed classrooms and implementing modular courses. The campus integrates AI into the teaching system, builds an open space integrating teaching, research, innovation, exhibition, and public aesthetic education, practices the New Shanghai School concept, and realizes the integration of industrial heritage activation and digital intelligence aesthetic education.
Michelle Douglas, deputy dean of the School of Design at RMIT University, started from the technological changes from the industrial revolution to AI and reflected on the environmental costs of disposable consumer design. She believes that AI can improve design efficiency, but human "tacit ingenious knowledge" such as material perception, manual skills, critical thinking, and humanistic empathy cannot be replaced. She advocates the exploration of "New Bauhaus" style design education, regards AI as a creative partner, adheres to human subjectivity, and balances technology, humanities and ecological responsibilities.
Mohammed Makki, Director of the School of Design and Society at the University of Technology Sydney, brought quantitative research on the quality of urban space. The team broke down the quality of urban space into indicators such as beauty, safety, comfort, and characteristics. It combined image collection, questionnaires, and machine learning algorithms to intelligently generate and optimize space plans. The relevant results won the Australian Design Award. The research found that there are regional and cultural differences in urban space evaluation, and unified standards cannot be applied. The team has already carried out practice in Sydney and Abu Dhabi, and looks forward to cooperating with Shanghai University to carry out localized research.
向量涌现FuturXAI联合创始人刘正阳提出“艺术思维体”构想。 Through multi-dimensional analysis of artists' works, we can refine the creator's unique value judgment and creative "obsession", train the artist's digital clone, and realize the co-creation of man and machine. This system is equipped with a mechanism to confirm the rights of digital works, insisting that artists have the right to make creative decisions, and exploring new models in which carbon-based human thinking nourishes silicon-based AI and computing power extends the boundaries of creativity.
In the roundtable dialogue on "Sustainable Design from the Perspective of Industry, University and Research in China and Australia", the guests reached a consensus: AI has expanded the boundaries of design innovation, but ingenuity, humanistic qualities and social responsibility are still the core of design. Design education at home and abroad should deepen the collaboration between schools, schools and enterprises, promote the connection between education, scientific research, design and industrial transformation, allow students to grow in real projects, and cultivate a new generation of design talents with ingenuity, computing power and sustainable vision.
This forum is hosted by Shanghai University, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, University of Technology Sydney, and jointly organized by China Aerospace Foundation and others. As one of the organizers of this conference, Shanghai University hosted three major events: the "Ingenuity and Computing Power" China-Australia Design Education Forum, the "Design Creation·Digital Intelligence Symbiosis" themed exhibition area, and the 2026 World Green Design Education Forum, which focused on displaying the school's practical achievements in the fields of AI-empowered design, innovation and transformation of China's excellent traditional culture, and international cooperation. The school stated that in the future, it will give full play to its multidisciplinary advantages, promote the integration of design with AI, new materials, and advanced manufacturing, promote innovative results to empower industries and cities, use design to connect tradition and the future, help Shanghai build a "design capital", and contribute to the development of new quality productivity.
